December 14, 2017 (Edmonton) –The Alberta Party Caucus is very disappointed to learn women who have undergone endovaginal ultrasounds at the Royal Alexandra Hospital’s Fertility Clinic may have been exposed to blood-borne and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

This news comes only a few weeks after Alberta Health Services announced that the clinic is closing the clinic to non-insured services, including in-vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination.

“It’s very disheartening,” said Alberta Party MLA Karen McPherson, a vocal advocate of keeping infertility treatment services intact and accessible. “Fertility clinic patients have already been through so much, and now they learn they may have been exposed to harmful diseases. I do not feel as though these women are getting the health care they need and deserve as Albertans.”

While AHS reports that the risk of women having been exposed to a blood-borne or sexually transmitted disease at the clinic is “as close to zero as it could possibly be,” any level of risk is too high when it comes to public health.

“There is now a possibility that fertility treatments will be further delayed while patients wait to be tested” said McPherson. “I know staff at the clinic are committed professionals and it’s worth investigating if the closure of the clinic has had a negative impact on workloads there that led to this breech of procedure.”